Backplane assemblies used in electronic equipment, such as telecommunications transmission bays, generally utilize a backplane having rows of connector plugs mounted in openings in the backplane. Each connector plug may have two rows of electrical terminals mounted in a molded plastic body, with first ends of the terminals being located in spaced opposed relationship on opposite sides of a slot in the body of the connector plug for receiving a substrate, such as a printed circuit board. Second opposite ends of the terminals, which are of bifurcated construction for the reception of electrical conductor wires, are aligned with respective wire guide slots in the molded plastic body. The molded plastic body also includes wire strain-relief slots on opposite sides of the body between the terminals. The printed circuit boards are interconnected to one another and to other associated electronic equipment in the transmission bay by the electrical conductor wires, which are dressed between the connector plugs on the backplane and inserted in the terminals of the connector plugs to produce a wiring arrangement referred to in the art as a .-+.wire mult."
In dressing the electrical conductor wires between the connector plugs in one of the connector plug rows of the backplane assembly and inserting the wires into the terminals of the connector plugs to produce the wire mult, since the connector plugs are capable of limited movement in their respective openings in the backplane, it is necessary that the wires be provided with slack portions between the connectors to preclude the placing of undue strain on the wires during the insertion process and/or in subsequent use of the backplane assembly in the field. In the past this has been accomplished by initially inserting the wire in a strain-relief slot of a first connector plug and then threading the wire through an air-operated hand dressing-and-insertion tool so that the wire is captured in the tool. The tool then is positioned over the first connector plug in the connector plug row. Upon actuation of an air cylinder of the tool, the tool then sequentially inserts the wire into one of the terminals of the first connector plug, forms slack between the first connector plug and a next connector plug, and inserts the wire into a strain-relief slot of the next connector plug. The tool then is positioned over the next connector plug and the same sequence of events is repeated for this connector plug and the next adjacent connector plug. The same procedure is repeated for each connector plug in the row until the wire has been connected to each of the connector plugs. This procedure is disadvantageous, however, because the insertion of the wire into each terminal after the wire has been secured against movement in its associated strain-relief slot frequently tends to place undesirable stress on the wire, causing stretching of the wire.
Accordingly, a primary purpose of this invention is to provide new and improved apparatus for inserting a wire into connector plugs and for dressing the wire between the connector plugs, in the forming of a wire mult, without stretching the wire.